MESOPOTAMIA, SUMERIA, ASSYRIA & EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE

MESOPOTAMIA

An ancient region in western Asia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, comprising the lands of 5umer and Akkad and occupied successively by the Sumerians. Babylonians, Assyrians. and Persians: now part of Iraq.

FERTILE CRESCENT

• An agricultural region arching from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea in the west to Iraq in the east

• The location of humankind’s earliest cultures.

ZIGGURAT

• Were built of mud bricks made of dirt mixed with water and straw. The mud was poured into wooden molds and left to dry in the sun (or baked kilns)

• Its four corners was oriented towards the cardinal points; north, south, east west.

• priests conduct ceremonies at the fire altar on top.

• Stepped structures constructed with outside staircases and a temple or shrine at the top for worshipping the gods of nature.

DUR-SHARRUKIN

• Palace of Sargon, Khorsabad. Iraq, Sargon II

• Squarish parallelogram city, with the palace, temples and government buildings compressed within the walls

• Palace, public reception, rooms, court, and harem Temple with 7-staged ziggurat Stables, kitchen, bakery, and wine cellar.

ZIGGURAT OF UR

• Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq

• A temple dedicated to the moon god built by the Sumerian ruler. Ur Nammu, and his successors around 2405 B.C.

SUMER

An ancient region in southern Mesopotamia. where a numerous independent cities ana city-states were established as early as 5000 B.C. A number of its cities. as Erldu. Uruk. and Ur. are major archeological Sites.

Sumerian architecture (5000-2000 B.C.)

• The architecture developed by the 5umerians who dominated southern Mesopotamia from the 4th to the end of the 3rd millennium B.C.

• characterized monumental temples of sun-dried brick faced with burnt or glazed brick.

• often built upon the ruins of their predecessors.

ASSYRIAN ARCHITECTURE (900-700 B.C.)

• The Mesopotamian architecture developed under the Assyrian king-emperors of the 9th to 7th centuries B.c.

• Within city walls strengthened by towers with crenelated battlements.

• Palaces took precedence over religious buildings.

• Vaulting played a greater role than In southern Mesopotamia and polychrome glazed brickwork showed the Influence of Egyptian decoration.

BABYLONIA

• (2000 - 1600 B.C.)

• The last great Mesopotamian city empire of the ancient age.

• Architecture characterized by mud-brick construction had walls articulated by pilasters and recesses, sometimes faced with burnt and glazed brick

• Palaces and temples were decorated with enameled brick friezes of bulls and lions.

TOWER OF BABEL (BABYLON)

• Lucas van Valckenborch, 1594,

• As described in the Bible, this structure may have been built in Babylon around 600 BC. by King Nebuchadnezzar II to “rival heaven”

• Herodotus recorded that the ziggurat had 7 tiers covered in glazed tiles The tower may have risen to a height of 300 feet and may have been used as a temple for worshipping Marduk, the god of the city of Babylon.

HANGING GARDENS (BABYLON)

One of the “Seven wonders of the World." A royal palace construoled of mue-trick walls were covered with glazed, colored tiles decorated with animal reliefs. Legend says that thisumptuous palace wis terraced with lush gardens that wers irrigated by water pumped from the Euphrates

PERSIAN (500 - 331 B.C.)

Characterized by a synthesis of architectural elements of surrounding countries, such as Assyria, Egypt, and Ionian Greece

PERSEPOLIS

• Fars Province, Iran

• Darius designed his own capital city Persepolis- “the city of the Persia" the Greeks called it - located 10 kilometers to the southwest and closer to the fertile lands along the coast

Ishtar Gate

• Reconstructed. Pergamon Museum, Berlin

• Large, four-storey portal, dominating the processional avenue through the city. It was covered in glazed bricks: colorful tiles, and decorative figures of bulls and dragons.

EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE

• The architecture of the ancient civlization that flourished along the Nile River In northwest Africa from before: 3000 B.C. to its annexation by Rome In 30 B.C.

• characterized esp. by the axial planning of massive masonry tombs and temples. the use of trabeated construction with precise stonework. and the decoration of battered walls with pictographic carvings in relief.

• A preoccupation with eternity and the afterlife dominated the building of these funerary monuments and temples, which reproduced the features of domestic architecture but on a massive scale using stone for permanence.

KIOSK

A freestanding stone canopy structure supported by columns in Egyptian Architecture. (Hypaethral, classical temple that is wholly partly open to the sky.)

SPHINX

• A figure of an Imaginary creature having the body of a lion and the head of a man, ram. or hawk. commonly placed along avenues leading to ancient Egyptian temples or tombs.

ANDROSPHINX:

Human headed sphinx

CRIOSPHINX

Ram headed sphinx

HIERACOSPHINX

Falcon headed sphinx

Obelisk

An Egyptian monolithic four-sided standing stone, tapering to a pyramidical cap (a pyramidion), often inscribed with hieroglyphs and erected as a monument.

AVENUE OF SPHINXES

Leads to a tall portal guarded by a towering pylon.

PYLON

A gateway guarding a sacred precinct consisting of either a pair of tall truncated pyramids and a doorway between them, often decorated with painted reliefs.

PYLON TEMPLE

An Egyptian temple type with monumental gateways, formed by twined pylons.

BARQUE TEMPLE

A room or building in which the image of the Pharaoh or deity was revered.

MORTUARY TEMPLE

An ancient Egyptian temple for offerings and worship of a deceased person. usually a deified king

CULT TEMPLE

An ancient Egyptian temple for the worship of a deity, as distinguished from a mortuary temple.

MORTUARY TEMPLE OF QUEEN HATSHEPSUT

• Deir el Bahari, Egypt. Senmut.

• Queen Hatshepsut's mortuary temple played a key role in the processional events as the temporary resting place for the barque during the Beautiful Feast of the Valley.

• Located in the Valley of the Kings, which was to become the main burial place for the Egyptian royalty.

MASTABA

An ancient Egyptian tomb made of mud brick, rectangular in plan with a flat roof and sloping sides, from which a shaft leads to underground burial and offering chambers.

HYPOSTYLE HALL

A large hall having many columns in rows supporting a flat roof, and sometimes a clerestory.

MAMMISI

• Dendera Temple Complex. Dendera, Egypt.

• Birth-house, a small Egyptian side temple, kiosk or tent shrine to celebrate the place where the god of the main temple was born, or where the goddess bore her children.

PYRAMID

• The Egyptian pyramids of the Giza Necropolis.

• The ancient Egyptians built more than 80 pyramids along the banks of the Nile near modern-day Cairo from 2700 to 1640 B.C. The pyramids were designed according to three forms:
  -Step pyramid
  -Bent pyramid
  -Straight-sided/Sloped pyramid

• A massive masonry structure having a rectangular base and four smooth. steeply sloping sides facing the cardinal points and meeting at an apex. used In ancient Egypt as a tomb to contain the burial chamber and the mummy of the pharaoh.

WHY ARE PYRAMIDS A TAPERING SHAPE?

Ancient rulers liked these artificial mountains for their great height (allowing them to commune with the gods) and commanding visual presence over that river valleys.

On a practical level, a pyramid concentrates most of its building on the lower half, so fewer stones have to be hauled to the top.

PYRAMID COMPLEX

The ceremonial area of buildings and structures surrounding an ancient Egyptian pyramid.

Parts of a Pyramid Complex
PYRAMID TEMPLE

A mortuary temple connected specifically to a pyramid, or part of an Egyptian pyramid complex.

Parts of a Pyramid Complex
PYRAMID CAUSEWAY

A covered ceremonial route or corridor leading from a valley temple to a mortuary temple at the foot of a pyramid, notably at sites of the Nile valley pyramids

Parts of a Pyramid Complex
VALLEY TEMPLE

A temple pavilion in an ancient Egyptian pyramid complex connected via a covered causeway to a mortuary temple at the foot of a pyramid: used for preparing the Pharaoh for his final journey.

Parts of a Pyramid Complex
MORTUARY TEMPLE

In ancient Egyptian architecture, a place of worship of a deceased king or queen, especially one adjoining a pyramid or rock cut tomb, in which offerings of food and objects were made; also called a funerary temple.

PYRAMID OF SNEFERU

Built by Sneferu (2613-2589 BCE), who ruled during the Fourth Dynasty. Originally planned to be a towering 1:50 meters high, it was too bold, and the ground gave way under part of it. In an effort to save the building, the designers added a kink or bend to reduce the weight and angle of the slope (from 52 to 43.5 degrees).

IMHOTEP

• The first architect recorded in history.

• Designed the Saqqara complex and the Stepped Pyramid of Djoser.

ABU SIMBEL

• The facade, carved directly into the sandstone cliff, takes the form of a pylon and is dominated by four colossal seated figures, 22 meters tall,

• all portrayals of Ramesses.

ROCK-CUT TOMB

A tomb hewn out of native rock, presenting only an architectural front with dark interior chambers, of which the sections are supported by masses of stone left in the form of solid pillars.

PYRAMID OF DJOSER

• Saqqara, Egypt.

• Built by Imhotep, architect to King Djoser,

• begun as a mastaba-tomb then successively enlarged; made of limestone; and set within a complex of buildings.

KA STATUE OF DJOSER

In a small chapel positioned against the north side of the pyramid was a life-size statue of Djoser, showing him wearing a priest's Sed festival cloak, a ceremonial beard, and a ritual headdress.

Sitting in the dark chamber, he could gaze through two small holes in the wall placed at the statue's eye level, through which he could watch the ceremonies taking place in the court.

STEP PYRAMID

pyramid-type whose sides are stepped with tiers rather than smooth, in Egypt predating the true pyramids; the Primary existing Egyptian example is that of King Djoser: at Saqqara, south of Cairo.

SLOPED PYRAMID

An Egyptian pyramid-type in which four sloping triangular sides, with a fixed angle, culminate at an apex. Also, true pyramid.

PYRAMIDS OF GIZA

Giza, Egypt.

Erected on the west bank of Nile River, built of local stone on a core of rock with casing blocks of limestone; 480 feet tall with a square base measuring 756 feet on a side.

• Largest/Greatest pyramid - Khufu (Greek: Cheops)

• Middle pyramid - Khafre (Greek: Chephren )

• Last pyramid - Menkaure (Greek: Mykerinus)

BENT PYRAMID

An Egyptian pyramid-type in which each triangular planar surface changes direction as it approaches the top, as in a mansard roof; sometimes also called a blunt or false pyramid.

NORTH PYRAMID OF DAHSHUR

Dahshur, Egypt.

The first true pyramid completed in Egypt; built by King Snefru between 2575-2551 ВСЕ.

STELA

A slab shows a royal personage at a funerary repast sitting next to an offering table covered with the loaves of bread that have been brought to him. Next to him on the floor, on small platforms, are containers holding incense, ointments, figs, and wine.

EGYPTIAN PALM CAPITALS

An ancient Egyptian capital shaped like of the crown of a palm tree.

EGYPTIAN LOTUS CAPITAL

An ancient Egyptian capital having the shape of a lotus bud.